


Shared Ghosts

by Haberdasher



Series: Twitch Plays Pokemon [43]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Twitch Plays Pokemon - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Twitch Plays HeartGold, Twitch Plays Pokemon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-25
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-03-03 13:03:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2851682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haberdasher/pseuds/Haberdasher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Youngster Joey calls Aurora shortly after Kenya's release.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shared Ghosts

Aurora was sitting in Blackthorn City, cradling her head in her hands, trying to ignore the world around her and to suppress her own thoughts about the terrible events that had just taken place in the nearby Pokemon Center. The voices were louder than ever, the sunlight was far too bright, and every gust of wind felt strong enough to topple her over.

And then, as if the noise and light and chaos wasn’t enough already, her Pokegear rang.

Aurora picked it up and held it to her ear, her brain too foggy to register the name that had been displayed on the device until it came bursting through from the other end of the line.

"Yo, Aurora, how you doing? It’s Joey. Got a minute?"

She mumbled some noncommittal response, and he kept talking as if she had given an enthusiastic yes. Same as always, really, but it seemed particularly frustrating this time around. And did he really have to be so loud?

"I was just training my Rattata out on Route 30, and you’ll never believe what-"

"Joey. You don’t have a Rattata. We just battled not that long ago, and you only had a Haunter, remember?"

There was a short lull in the conversation before Joey spoke up again, unusual for the loud-mouth youngster. “Right, right. Well, I was training my, er, Haunter and-“

"You don’t get it, Joey." Aurora moved the Pokegear from beside her ear to on her lap, where she gazed unthinkingly at the spot where the screen displayed the name of her conversation partner. She knew that she’d probably be able to hear Joey’s overly enthusiastic banter even from this distance, and if not… well, she was okay with that. "Your Rattata isn’t a Rattata, it’s a ghost now. It’s dead, your only Pokemon is dead, don’t you understand that? And no matter what you do- no matter how hard you try- you’ll never be able to bring it back. NEVER!" Her voice was wavering, no matter how hard she tried to calm herself down.

"Uh… Aurora… You’ve never talked like this before. Are you okay?"

"And YOU. How come you never let me say how I’m doing, huh? Do you have any idea where I am? Did you even know I’ve gotten all eight gym badges? No, of course not! Because you were too busy blabbering on about your dead Rattata!" And now she was the loud one. That was new.

"…what’s wrong, Aurora?"

"Don’t. Just don’t."

"But-"

Aurora hung up the phone.

Then the tears started flowing, blurring her vision, splashing onto her Pokegear. Joey… stupid, naive Youngster Joey… why did the voices like him so much?

He wouldn’t understand. What did he know about caring for Pokemon? He couldn’t even remember if he had a Rattata or a Bonsly or a Haunter. He’d never grown attached like she had… never known loss like she now did. That boy, that stupid young boy, couldn’t even begin to comprehend the pain that the voices were putting her through now.

Of course, Kenya had never been hers to care for, not really. Kenya had belonged to somebody else, somebody who had never expected her to keep the legendary, somebody who wanted her to run an errand that would now never be completed. But that didn’t make Aurora feel any better, quite the opposite. It just meant even more people were hurt by her… no, by the voices’ actions. It meant that, somewhere off near Violet City, a man would forever sit waiting for a message that never came.

And she was stuck here, the sun burning her skin and the wind tearing her apart, and the voices still calling out to her.

As Aurora sniffled and tried to take deep breaths, her Pokegear lit up again and began making noise. Aurora’s tears blurred her vision too much for her to make out the words on the screen, but even if she hadn’t known in her gut who was calling her back, the voices’ screeches of “JOEY-SENPAI!!!” were more than enough to tip her off.

The voices wanted her to pick up the phone, to talk to him again, to let him ramble on about his “Rattata” and listen quietly and pretend that nothing had ever happened. But then, the voices had just proved that they couldn’t be trusted, even if some of them pretended to regret their actions. And what could a little kid like him say that would be helpful at a time like this?

Aurora picked the Pokegear up from her lap and grasped it firmly, feeling every button and knob press into the flesh of her hand. Then she chucked it as far as she could, tossing it towards the cliffs that surrounded Blackthorn City, hoping that it would fall off the edge and down the mountain and she’d never have to hear that blasted thing go off again. It wasn’t that easy, of course. The Pokegear fell only a few feet away, her throw weakened by the protests of the voices, and though it momentarily quieted as it hit the ground, the sound still wouldn’t shut off.

After a while, though, the ringing stopped.

He must have given up.

And as she sat there, tears streaming down her face, she was glad, bitterly glad, that there was one less voice for her to listen to.


End file.
